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Which floor is best for a new house?

These days, we have lots of different flooring options that are very affordable, including Hardwood, Ceramic, Bamboo, Vinyl, laminate etc. Every type of flooring has advantages and disadvantages,depending on the situation, house location, your lifestyle, one type that is good for your room may be a worst choice for another.So if you are working on your floor, you need a little research on what are the tiles available and what are the advantages and disadvantages: 

Primary considerations: 

Lifestyle:  If the show is cooking at your home, you’re the star! — and spouses, children, and pets will often check in…and if you have young children or plan to stay for years, a non-slip floor is important for safety.

Style Sense: Consider the kitchen’s size, as well as existing colors, textures, and patterns. Also need to be keen about the place whether it’s country-style, farm house  or contemporary, …choose accordingly that will complement your kitchen.

Comfort: If you spend hours on your feet in the kitchen for cooking, consider floors with a bit of softness and resilience. 

Ease of Cleaning: To minimize time spent on maintenance, we need to choose a material that’s easy to clean, water resistant, and not prone to staining.

Cost:  Once we have  determined your flooring budget, measure the kitchen to get an idea of square footage. 

Above are the primary but there are some other considerations you also have to make for your kitchen floor.

Durability: For  durability issues, choose tile according to PEI rating i.e. rated Class 3 (low to moderate traffic) or Class 4 heavy traffic) for kitchen floors.

Water resistance: For unglazed tiles with a maximum water absorption rate of should be 0.5% and glazed tiles with a maximum rate of 3%.

Texture:  Don’t use Textured tiles for floors. It makes the floor less slippery, it’s ok, but can catch dirt easily that may be tougher to clean. You may use some else for your foot in the area.

Underlayment:  Depending on the existing subfloor, a cement tile backer board may be required beneath the tile 

Types of Flooring Available to  Consider

Well, there is no one type of flooring that is ideal for every room. Here we are going to check some of the advantages and disadvantages of several popular types of flooring, as well as some ideas about which are the best flooring options for specific areas.

1. Hardwood

If you are in any cold place Hardwood flooring will be warm and beautiful for you. It is also comfortable underfoot. It’s a good choice if you have an open floor plan and want a single type of flooring that extends to the rest of the house.

>Types:

Solid wood:

Wood is a desirable flooring choice because it has natural beauty, it feels warm, and it is durable. It is seasoned through a well defined process. But wood is generally affected by both heat and moisture in the environment. So it may  swell up  and shrink. Because of the activities that take place in a kitchen, wood kitchen flooring is fairly exposed to changes in temperature and humidity.

Engineered wood planks: Process or engineered wood planks have a top veneer of real wood backed by a layer of plywood or other material. The layer makes the planks stable and the flooring less susceptible to humidity and temperature — a good kitchen flooring idea.

Advantages

• Feels warm
• Easy to maintenance
• Eye catchy

Disadvantages

.Bad for

.Bathrooms

.Laundry rooms

.Kitchen

.Often need maintenance

2. Bamboo

Bamboo is a good environment friendly to wood flooring. It is also become very popular these days. 

>Types

Solid strips: like hardwood it is also found in solid strips. It is available in many long light and darker strips. 

Engineered planks: It has darker stripes across the boards and bamboo nodes may be visible ; End grain is cut from vertically pressed bamboo blocks and has lots of little short strips.

Advantages

.More moisture resistant

.Easy to install

.Comes in different types:

.Eco-friendly

Disadvantages

.Less durable 

.Uses chemical fertilizer to grow

.Use glue-may be harmful for humans and pets

.Bad for Kitchen, Bathrooms.

3.Ceramic / Porcelain  Tile

For durability and good looks, porcelain tile flooring is the champion. It is an upgraded version of regular ceramic tile because of a manufacturing process that makes it harder and less porous — a good choice for houses.

>Types

Found in following types:

• Glazed Ceramic. 
• Porcelain. 
• Quarry Tile. 
• Terracotta. 

Advantages:

Resists Water: Porcelain tile is highly resistant. It also lasts longer.

• Need low Maintenance: 
• They’re Colorful 
• Good for High Traffic use 
• Comes in a wide range of styles  
• Highly Durable  
• Moisture Resistant
• Simple To Clean 

Disadvantages

.Feels Cold

.Feels Hard underfoot.

.Glazey Tiles could be slippery

.Good for high traffic area

4.Laminate

Laminate flooring is constructed much like engineered wood, with a a multi-layer synthetic flooring product fused together with a lamination process  over layers of plywood or compressed fiber. It looks like wood flooring or sometimes stone flooring. Traditionally it offered a cheaper alternative to real wood.

>Types

Laminate tiles: 

Laminate planks:

Laminate comes in either planks or tiles. These are floating floor systems, which you can install right over your old flooring with no glue or nails.

Advantages

.Scratch resistant

.Easy to install

.Natural looking than vinyl 

.Comfortable to walk on 

.Easy to clean

.Good for high traffic area

Disadvantages

.less resistance to moisture

.Efficient in dump area

.Slippery when wet.

.Can’t be refinished

 5.Vinyl

Vinyl is a  flexible material that feels a bit softer underfoot.then tile. It’s made from a layer of polyvinyl chloride plastic over a layer of felt. Some of the thicker vinyl flooring can have a textured surface to make it look like wood or stone.

>Types

Vinyl flooring offers a variety of styles and colors in  tiles or sheets for those who have a low budget. 

Large Sheet form: Sheet vinyl is resilient for flooring, which means it feels slightly soft underfoot.

Tiles form: Tiles forms are very easy to install. Even DIY could be ok, also easy to change and repair.

Advantages

.Waterproof and stain-proof

.Huge options of colors and styles

.In plain and embossed

.Comfortable to walk on

.Suitable for heavy traffic area

.Good for Kitchen, baths

Disadvantages

• Have a fake look
• vulnerable to scratching and gouging
• no way to refinish
• Use harmful chemical, called phthalates

6.Linoleum

Linoleum is another type of resilient flooring, linoleum is composed largely of linseed oil, a naturally produced substance that is extracted from flax seeds. Using other natural and renewable materials like wood flour, cork dust, pine rosin, and pressed into sheets and tiles for use as a flooring material.

>Types

•  in sheets
• Tiles or laminate planks

Advantages

• durable than vinyl.
• Use natural materials so eco-friendly
• Water-resistant but need sealing
• Feels soft
• Easy to clean

Disadvantages

• Not water-resistant
• Difficult to install
• Uncoated linoleum needs regular waxing
• Strong smell for stays a couple of weeks after new installation.
• Not suitable for Kitchen and Bathrooms.

7. Cork

Another type of resilient flooring is made from cork, the bark of oak trees. Boiled bark gone unders a defined process. Then used a high-density backing, 

>Types

Cork flooring comes in two forms. We can buy tiles that you glue down to install or planks that generally  have a click-lock edge and can be installed as a floating floor according to the instruction manual..

Advantages

.Resilient

.Cork feel warm

.Soft underfoot

.Slip resistant

.Easy to install 

.Highly durable

Disadvantages

.vulnerable to moisture, scratches, tears, and dents

.Need resealing.

So, we could say there are several types of flooring options available these times. We will go according to our lifestyle, budget and environment of the location we like to build our new house.